TORONTO — A reporter asked Masai Ujiri if his team, the perpetually struggling Toronto Raptors, was in full teardown mode. Ujiri, no doubt feeling a little relief after being able to trade Rudy Gay and his expensive contract, could only laugh.

“All of those T words, I don’t know,” the Raptors general manager said Monday evening. “You changed it up on me. You used a different one now.”

So, let’s say it for Ujiri: The Toronto Raptors are tanking. They have no intention of winning this year. If you are a Raptors fan, you might as well start cheering for losses. The Raptors’ draft lottery odds cannot get high enough. Some fans, of course, have been doing this already. As Ujiri prepares to further dismantle his team, though, there is no doubt that he will eventually be doing the same, even if he cannot say it.

“The one thing I can say is we won’t be trapped in the middle,” Ujiri said. “I can honestly say that. We will not be stuck in no man’s land, that’s for sure.”

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In the absence of magically being able to turn his roster into an above average one, the only thing Ujiri can control is what he does with his current assets. That he was able to trade Gay, along with Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray, to Sacramento for Greivis Vasquez, Chuck Hayes, Patrick Patterson and John Salmons, is a nice start.

The reality, of course, is that none of this really matters until the next move. Predictions that the Raptors will actually be better without Gay, simply by diverting his shots to a combination of Amir Johnson, Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas, might or might not be correct. However, this is the Eastern Conference, where you have to really go out of your way to be truly bad.

I don’t think we’re going through a bad patch. I think we had some chemistry issues with the team in terms of playing

To accomplish that ignoble goal, Ujiri has a lot of work to do, and he must strike a tricky balance. He wants to get as much of a return for his assets as possible, but would like to move them as soon as possible, in order to avoid more victories, and would like to receive pieces that help far more in the future than they will in the present. Managing all of that is at least as much art as science. The perfect time to make a move — the sweet spot that marries the best return and the most losses — cannot be known.

“If you’re [7-12], you’ve got to figure out your team or figure out how to get better,” Ujiri said. “We’re not going to make rash decisions here and just do anything that’s going to make us better for two games. I think [future considerations will dictate] a lot of future stuff. I always have to listen. That’s my job. My phone does beep.”

That is essentially how the Gay trade came about. Ujiri did not go into the office on Sunday to talk about a trade with his former deputy, Sacramento general manager Pete D’Alessandro. Instead, he was set to do an interview about Nelson Mandela. That is when previous conversations about Gay with the Kings re-started. A few hours later, a deal was done. Compared to January’s days-long negotiations between the Grizzlies and Raptors when Gay was acquired, it was very simple.

As Ujiri frequently noted, he had to be aggressive. Gay’s player option, worth US$19.3-million, was hamstringing his attempts to plan for the future. Also, there was the whole matter of what was unfolding on the court. The Raptors, with Gay and DeMar DeRozan both in the league’s top 25 in usage — possessions that end with a shot or a turnover from the given player — were bordering on unwatchable. It was a poor environment in which Valanciunas could grow.

“I think from the performance of our team, there had to be some kind of change,” Ujiri said. “I don’t think we’re going through a bad patch. I think we had some chemistry issues with the team in terms of playing. Those guys were great off of the court, and great with each other. We never had any issues. On the court, you could tell we weren’t in sync.”

That makes head coach Dwane Casey’s immediate challenge to make the Raptors’ losing more attractive. It is on Ujiri to ensure that the team will, indeed, lose.